European Union sanctions set to remain

The European Union is expected to meet next week in Brussels, Belgium to renew the bloc's sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The indications follow a meeting between MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and diplomats on Monday in which he is alleged to have made a "salient" push for extension of sanctions ahead of elections later this year.

Last week, Foreign Affairs Ministry officials met members of the EU delegation in Zimbabwe to discuss the matter and were told that the illegal embargo would remain in place.

Yesterday, Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo also met US Embassy officials and impressed on them the need to immediately lift the widely discredited sanctions.

All this comes against the backdrop of revelations by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks that the EU is divided over the legality of the sanctions regime.

The sanctions debate has also spilled into Parliament with the Senate yesterday debating the matter extensively in the wake of a motion moved by Senator Aguy Georgias calling for a class action against the EU.

The EU is expected to extend the embargo that it put in place ahead of the 2002 Presidential elections.

Foreign Affairs officials confirmed they met EU personnel in a "dead-end" meeting in which the latter indicated Zimbabwe should not expect any relief from the sanctions.

Senior Government officials yesterday said the EU was likely to extend the embargo.

"We should not expect much from the EU," said a Foreign Affairs Ministry official.

MDC-T leader Mr Tsvangirai is understood to have told Western diplomats in Harare on Monday that Zanu-PF was perpetrating violence against indigenous people and foreigners as well.

MDC-T leader Mr Tsvangirai is understood to have told Western diplomats in Harare on Monday that Zanu-PF was perpetrating violence against indigenous people and foreigners as well.